Many countries across Europe are turning to dams to add clean power and energy storage to their grids. Greece is doing it its own way: upgrading what it already has and building storage to squeeze more from wind and solar. And nowhere tells that story better than Lake Plastiras, in the hills above the Thessalian plain.

It's harvest season here and every drop counts. Water and electricity keep the plain alive – and both are increasingly tied to Greece's hydropower revamp. 

"If this system didn't exist, we'd be forced to run pumps on tractors and burn fuel – the costs would be unbearable," says local farmer Dimitris Zografos. "Farming would simply collapse. This network doesn't just water our fields, it keeps our villages alive."

Lake Plastiras is no natural wonder; it's engineered to work. The PPC hydropower station houses two turbines of 130 megawatts each, turning out roughly 300 gigawatt-hours a year – enough to power about 50,000 homes. Beyond the grid, the lake pipes drinking water to Karditsa and more than 80 villages, and feeds thousands of hectares of crops.

"Since 1959, Plastiras has been the region's backbone: energy to the grid, irrigation to the plain, and safe drinking water to our communities. Tourism grew around it as well," says Panagiotis Nanos, Mayor of Lake Plastiras. "Our task now is stewardship – protecting the lake as we upgrade for the next decades."

That upgrade hinges on pumped storage – think of it as a giant water battery. When sunshine and wind produce surplus power, pumps push water uphill to a higher reservoir. When demand spikes later, the same water rushes back down through reversible turbines and generates electricity on cue. 

"It functions as a grid-scale battery," explains energy analyst Michalis Xristodoulidis. "Without storage, surplus clean energy can't be shifted to evening peaks; hydropower helps keep the system stable."

Across the Balkans, China-backed dams in Bosnia and Herzegovina are adding flexible capacity. Greece is opting to bank wind and solar through pumped storage, avoiding fresh river barriers while boosting resilience at home.

Balance remains the buzzword at Plastiras, where tourists share the shoreline with farmers. 

"Water is a social good and must be managed without waste," says mayor Nanos. "We work with partners in Spain and Italy to reuse rainwater and treated wastewater for agriculture."

As the corn comes in, Lake Plastiras keeps doing triple duty: power, water, stability. With new storage projects on the horizon, Greece is betting that modernized hydropower can secure both its energy supply and its way of life.